10/28/2016

Alec Baldwin Accused of Avoiding Taxes on Painting

In a dispute with a gallery of the authenticity of a painting, Alex Baldwin has been accused by the gallerist of having the painting, when purchased shipped from NY to his California home, and the shipped backed to his NYC home in order to avoid nearly $17,000 in state and city taxes.

The NY Times reports on the accusations

The art world feud between the actor Alec Baldwin and the gallery owner Mary Boone took another turn on Thursday when lawyers for Ms. Boone filed a motion in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan accusing Mr. Baldwin of committing fraud by failing to pay sales tax on a painting he bought from her six years ago.

The filing comes just over a month after Mr. Baldwin sued Ms. Boone, asserting she had defrauded him in 2010 by promising him a painting, “Sea and Mirror,” by the artist Ross Bleckner, for which he had paid $190,000, but supplying him another, similar Bleckner painting, also called “Sea and Mirror.”

Mr. Baldwin’s dispute with Ms. Boone, a prominent gallerist who built her reputation in the 1980s, has lifted a curtain on a part of the New York art world outsiders don’t always see.

When Mr. Baldwin confronted Ms. Boone with his accusations in an email this year, he compared her to an armadillo, someone who was used to “blasting your way out of corners like this on more than one occasion.”

In this latest filing, Ms. Boone is fighting back.

In the motion to dismiss Mr. Baldwin’s suit, her lawyer said that when Mr. Baldwin bought the Bleckner painting in 2010, the actor left instructions to deliver it directly to his home in California, and then almost immediately after it arrived on the West Coast, had the painting shipped back to his apartment in New York.

The filing provides evidence, the lawyer said, showing it arrived in Woodland Hills, Calif., in late April 2010, and was installed back in Mr. Baldwin’s apartment in New York early the next month, describing this as a way for Mr. Baldwin not to pay taxes of nearly $17,000.

“As the documentary evidence makes clear, Baldwin sought relief from the New York state and city sales taxes — $16,625 — by causing the painting to be shipped momentarily to his California residence, with the instruction that the painting remain in California only long enough for his assistant to sign for it, after which it was to make an immediate u-turn so that it could be installed in Baldwin’s New York City apartment,” Ms. Boone’s lawyer, Ted Poretz, said in the court documents.

Mr. Baldwin’s lawyer, John Hueston, said Ms. Boone was only trying to distract attention from Mr. Baldwin’s claims.

“That is just a blatant diversionary tactic and an attempt to distract from the fraud she is not denying,” Mr. Hueston said. “We will not dignify that allegation with a response.”

Ms. Boone’s lawyers rejected Mr. Baldwin’s lawsuit as false, and said it was invalidated because he waited too long to make his claim so that it now falls outside the statute of limitations, an allegation that Mr. Hueston called “incredible.”

In a sworn affidavit, Ms. Boone said, “I respectfully submit that Baldwin cannot connive an elaborate scheme to evade sales taxes and yet claim that there are any circumstances under which he is entitled to punitive or exemplary damages in connection with the same transaction.”

Mr. Baldwin first had questions about the painting after he bought it from Ms. Boone six years ago because when it arrived at his apartment in New York, he said, it appeared brighter and had a different smell than he had expected, according to his filing.

Ms. Boone quieted his concerns at the time by telling him she had had it cleaned, he said.

Mr. Baldwin has said that he was never told he was getting a different version, and that Ms. Boone intentionally created a copy to appear genuine, and to fool him by passing it off as the real thing.

In the latest filing, Mr. Poretz said that the two paintings are so starkly different from each other that Mr. Baldwin should have realized he was getting a different version of “Sea and Mirror.”

Mr. Poretz said that Ms. Boone did not know Mr. Baldwin intended to evade taxes as she alleged because he had privately given delivery instructions to the shipping company.

No comments:

Subscribe Via Email. Get New AW Posts Emailed to You Daily.

Featured Video

Health of the Art Market

Welcome Message

The Appraiser Workshops blog was developed in 2008 to publish news connected with the personal property profession and to promote the Appraiser Workshops. Content includes appraisal ideas and tips, industry news and events, market trends and updates, surveys, educational opportunities and general commentary about personal property appraising. Visit often. Comments, news, suggestions and content contributions are always welcome.

About Me

Todd W. Sigety, is a certified member of the International Society of Appraisers and is a partner in the Appraiser Workshop, developers of the Good, Better, "Best" Appraiser Workshop. He owns two Antique galleries in Old Town Alexandria, VA where the workshop is held. He currently serves as the President on the National Board of Directors for the International Society of Appraisers. He is also the creator and editor of the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies.

Blog Archive

Subscribe To

Second Navigation Menu

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of appraisal and appraisal related issues, including, education, appraisal theory, methodology, news, science, and technology. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material for educational purposes as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any further use of the posts or article excerpts should include proper attribution. Appraiser Workshops - Active Learning at its Best